1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for the storage and organization of wire leads and tubes. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for the storage and organization of wire leads and tubes extending from monitoring equipment found in operating rooms, recovery rooms, and other patient treatment environments. Further, the present invention relates to a system for the storage and organization of wire leads and tubes during patient transport between various patient treatment environments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typically, a patient operating room or recovery room contains various invasive and non-invasive devices for monitoring patient vital signs and for patient treatment. For example, typical non-invasive patient monitoring equipment includes a pulse oxygen meter, an E.K.G., a blood pressure unit, and a temperature unit. In contrast, invasive monitoring equipment includes transducer units for determining systemic pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, and central venous pressure. For each monitoring unit, a lead of some type extends from the monitoring unit to the patient or the transducer units. These leads may be electrical cables or wires, as in the case of the pulse oxygen meter, the E.K.G., the temperature measurement unit and the transducer units. Alternatively, the leads may be tubing, such as the pneumatic tubing for the blood pressure monitoring units. In general, the length of the leads extending from the monitoring equipment is approximately four to twelve feet.
The extent of organization of the leads extending from the monitoring equipment varies greatly from operating room to operating room and from recovery area to recovery area. In general, however, no operating room nor recovery area protocol exists for storing the monitoring leads after their use. In fact, often the leads are discarded to the floor or left dangling from the monitors. As a result, the leads tend to knot up or become entangled with one another. This creates a cluttered work environment and causes stress to the operating room personnel because the leads must be located and untangled before they can be used again. Untangling the leads at the start of an operating room procedure or a recovery area hook-up takes valuable patient treatment time away from the nurses and doctors.
Leads lying on the floor also can cause the operating room work space to become unworkable because the leads can become entangled under foot or obstruct ready access to the patient. Additionally, such leads can become damaged by personnel stepping on them or rolling heavy equipment over them. Damaged leads require costly replacement because such leads are less effective at transmitting signals to the monitoring equipment.
Similarly, no protocol exists for organizing the transducer units and their associated wire leads during patient transport from the operating room to the recovery area or elsewhere. Typically, the wire leads that extend from the monitoring equipment to the transducers are disconnected from the monitoring equipment and haphazardly thrown on the patient gurney or patient. Little attention is given to keeping the wires from knotting or to keeping the wires separate from one another. Additionally, the transducers are randomly set on the gurney or patient. Thus, when the patient arrives in the recovery area, hospital personnel must untangle the wire leads extending from the transducers before reattaching them to the invasive monitoring equipment.